I had a hard time with the Netflix show. Let’s break down why.
Directed by Lisa Bryant, based on the bestseller by author and former Epstein’s neighbor James Patterson, Netflix’s “Filthy Rich”, co-written by John Connolly with Tim Malloy, tells the tale of sexual predator and billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
The documentary is shot as a tense, postuhmous police investigation. It features depositions from a handful of mr. Epstein’s victims, police chiefs, journalists, lawyers and people who worked on his properties. Its packaging is basically an “Inside Hitler’s bunker” History Channel documentary, but the content is far more noble. Differently from most crime-glorifying series, this one focuses on the victims: who they are, how the abuse hapenned and how it changed their lives.
The filmmakers seem to have been interested in a deep-dive into the lives and challenges of victims of sexual trauma, but in four one-hour-long episodes, it delivered a thick description of the predator’s M.O and despite giving the spotlight to the victims, often grabs said light to perpetuate the same story we see time and time again. It frames Jeffrey Epstein not as an abuser of the type we should keep our eyes open for, he – says the documentary – is unique. A genious sex ofender billionaire that seems to be set apart from day-to-day misoginy, using his massive cash flow to buy his way out of the hands of the law. Despite what the own victims say, Jeffrey Epstein seems to be the exception and not the rule.
The little that we know of Epstein’s personal story is framed as the protagonist of the 2002 film Catch me if you can. The criminal is shown as an intelligent middle class kid that rose his way by lying and cunningly manipulating the people around him. The documentary goes back and fourth in time, ping ponging in between intimate interviews with brave women and framing Epstein’s story always as a fluke: a guy from Long Island who tricked his way into Manhattan’s elite and then used his money to abuse young girls.
The filmmakers accomplished many good things, by exposing the depths of the trauma suffered by the predator’s victims, but seem to miss the mark by the way it portrays it. There are two reasons I have recognized so far: the subject himself & the documentary’s cognitive dissonance.
“Filthy Rich” could have offered an exploration of corruption in capitalism and how our world deals with powerful men. As protests sore through America’s streets, it would be great if what is currently the second most viewed piece of media on the Netflix platform could offer some insight into what made Epstein impenetrable and how those characteristics are weaponized systemically.
Despite it’s apparently good intentions, Fithy Rich‘s content (victims talking about their abuse) is undermined by the framing (edits, ominous sound track, and focus on Epstein’s exceptions). This contradiction between what the story is saying and how you tell it is the essence of cognitive dissonance. The interviews with victims tells one story, but the camera and edit tell another one.
I understand that Jeffrey Epstein was exceptionally rich and manipulative. I understand that to tell his story one needs to break down the exclusive access he had, the power, the mansions… but in a society that values just that, so many people repeat the same patterns having much less access. Much less money. Sometimes not actual power, but the illusion of power, is enough to condemn a victim to silent suffering.
It is also important to notice that even the focus on the victims can be broken apart. They interview them about their lives, hopes and dreams, but they also describe in detail how the abuse hapenned. In too many scenes to count women that were abused by Epstein describe in graphic detail something that, perhaps, don’t need to be said over and over again.
I fear I might be, perhaps, too harsh on the documentary. Perhaps that is the way these filmmakers found to introduce the audience to the years of abuse so many women suffered in Epstein’s hand, understanding, through repetition, a glimpse of how the survivors felt.
Alicia Arden, Chauntae Davies, Maria and Annie Farmer, Michelle Licata, Sarah Ransome, Shawna Rivera, Virginia Roberts, Haley Robson, and Courtney Wild are the undescribably brave women that come forward, in both the documentary and the law suit. They say multiple times that what motivated them to talk about the crimes commited against them was the hope that it would prevent it from happening to other people. Let’s hope Filthy Rich, despite it’s shortcomings, accomplished that somehow. Not just for victims of the now dead Jeffrey Epstein but for other past, current and potential victims of people just like him.
